MORE THAN 100 FBI CASES CALLED INTO QUESTION BY US ATTORNEY

WASH POST - The U.S. attorney's office in the District has found more than 100 cases since the mid-1970s that need to be reviewed because of potentially falsified and inaccurate tests by FBI analysts.

The report, filed in D.C. Superior Court late Friday, stems from an internal investigation by prosecutors after the exoneration in December of Donald E. Gates, who was falsely imprisoned for 28 years for the 1981 rape and slaying of a Georgetown University student.

The review was launched to examine 20 cases in which Justice Department officials questioned the validity of statements made by six FBI forensic analysts who were identified in a 1997 report by the department's office of inspector general.

After weeks of reviewing FBI lab reports, court transcripts, criminal history databases and police records, Patricia A. Riley, a special counsel to newly appointed U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr., concluded that only the Gates case resulted in a wrongful conviction.

During the review, Justice identified an additional 100 cases since the 1970s involving the suspect FBI experts. Riley wrote that since December, her office performed a "preliminary review" of 78 of the cases and found "no misconduct." Prosecutors have presented no findings so far on the remaining 22 cases.